Every birthday ends the same way. Someone says they will send the photos, a few arrive in the group chat that night, more trickle in over the week, and the best ones never arrive at all because they are on the phone of a guest who forgot. The ones that do arrive have usually been squeezed by the messaging app on the way.
Papped turns that around. Instead of asking for photos afterwards, you put one QR code out at the start. Guests scan it, a camera opens in their browser, and everything they shoot goes into one shared roll for the party. The full-size originals land in your own Google Drive while the party is still going, so the morning after there is nothing to chase.
Each guest gets a limited roll, which sounds like a restriction and works like a prompt. People stop taking forty frames of the same candle and start looking for the shot nobody else got: the face when the cake comes out, the grandparents on the dance floor, the friend who flew in as a surprise.
Start with the name. Guests see it the moment they scan, so it sets the mood, and at a surprise party it is the one thing that can give the game away. Give the event a neutral name and change it in Settings after the reveal. A welcome photo of the birthday person on the screen guests see first is free on every plan.
Decide whose Drive keeps the photos. If you are throwing the party for someone else, connect your own Drive and share the folder with them afterwards, so they get everything without setting anything up. On paid plans you can add stickers to the camera, a big number for the age works well, and a watermark on the delivered photos.
Size it last. A dinner for up to 5 guests is free with 5 shots each, no card needed. For a bigger party the guest count picks a plan, the price is on the form before you pay, and you pay once. Launch, and the QR code and a print-ready poster are ready straight away.
Creating an event, step by step
At a kids' party the photographers are the parents and grandparents, and they are exactly the guests who will not install an app. Scanning a code is the whole instruction. Every photo is screened before it appears, and from Pap Plus you can switch on approval so nothing shows in the gallery until you have looked at it, which some parents prefer when other people's children are in the shots.
A milestone birthday, a 30th or a 60th, brings every generation into one room. The same camera works on any recent iPhone or Android phone, and on paid plans guests can record short clips with sound, which is how the toasts and the off-key singing survive the night.
A birthday dinner at a restaurant needs even less. Put the code on the table or send the link to the group before you arrive. A small table fits inside the free plan, and everyone leaves with the same photos instead of the one person who remembered to take any.
How to get everyone's photos after a party
When the event ends the camera closes, and guests still uploading get a grace period, 24 hours by default, which you can change in Settings. Everyone who joined can keep browsing the gallery for 30 days and save what they are allowed to.
Your Drive folder is permanent and full size, so it is ready for a slideshow, a printed album or a thank-you message with the best shot.
Ending an event, and what happens to the photos